The Coming of the FairiesSir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859?1930), best known as the author of Sherlock Holmes stories but also a devout spiritualist, was entirely convinced by a set of photographs apparently showing two young girls from Cottingley in Yorkshire playing with a group of tiny, translucent fairies. To demonstrate his unshakeable belief in the spirit world, he published The Coming of the Fairies in 1922. Doyle?s book lays out the story of the photographs, their supposed provenance, and the implications of their existence. This quirky and fascinating book allows us to get inside the mind of an intelligent, highly respected man who happened to believe in fairies. John M. Lynch?s introduction to this Bison Books edition provides the background to appreciate Doyle?s claims and, without supporting the existence of fairies, to understand why Doyle wanted them to exist. The photographs of the fairies are reproduced in their entirety, with the original captions, offering readers an opportunity to examine Doyle?s and his supporters? claims to their authenticity. |
Contents
HOW THE MATTER AROSE | 13 |
THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT STRAND CHRISTMAS NUMBER 1920 | 39 |
RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS | 59 |
THE SECOND SERIES | 93 |
OBSERVATIONS OF A CLAIRVOYANT IN THE COTTINGLEY GLEN AUGUST 1921 | 108 |
INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES | 123 |
SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES | 152 |
THE THEOSOPHIC VIEW OF FAIRIES | 171 |
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Common terms and phrases
able actually appear Arthur Conan Doyle Arthur Wright August beautiful beck Blavatsky bodies bower brownies camera child claimed clairvoyant Collection at Leeds colour Cottingley fairies cousin dancing dence Doyle's dress E. L. Gardner Elsie etheric etheric bodies evidence existence of fairies experience face fact fairy figures faked father feet flowers Fox sisters Frances genuine girls glen gnome goblins graphs grass green ground hair Harlesden human inches high interested lady Leeds University letter little creatures little figures looking Major Hall-Edwards Miss Wright moving nature spirits negatives October 25 photographs pixie plant plate playing prints psychic matters race real fairies remarkable Reproduced result says sceptical seems seen fairies Snelling sort Spiritualist spot story Strand Magazine sure taken theatrical properties Theosophical Society thought thought-forms tion tive tographs told ture vibrations whole wings wood elves Yorkshire
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Page 5 - I would warn the critic, however, not to be led away by the sophistry that because some professional trickster, apt at the game of deception, can produce a somewhat similar effect, therefore the originals were produced in the same way. There are few realities which cannot be imitated, and the ancient argument that because conjurors...